It led with a lengthy report about a fire at a makeshift Henan orphanage. It also contained investigative reports on the environmental damage caused by abandoned coal mines in Shanxi province and a poor man in Jiangsu province who was forced to administer his own dialysis treatments.

Only a small section of the paper indirectly referred to Southern Weekly's recent row with the censors.

The paper republished an editorial from Communist Party paper People's Daily which said that methods the party used to control the media "must keep up with the times".

In an article commenting on the editorial, the Southern Weekly argued that China's policy of opening up must also be reflected in a more open media.

"We should toss away old and rigid attitudes that are not good for fixing the mental knots and rallying people's minds", the editorial noted.

Outside the paper's headquarters in Guangzhou, a handful of protesters - one in a wheel chair - were bundled into a van by police.

Earlier in the week larger groups of people had turned out to show their support for the paper, but these numbers appeared to have dropped.

The dispute provoked strong reaction on the internet, including from high-profile bloggers.

It also spread beyond Southern Weekly, after some papers tried to disobey an apparent government directive ordering papers to publish a Global Times editorial blaming the confrontation on "activists outside the media industry".

Other media portals published disclaimers saying they did not endorse the views contained in the editorial.